The Greatest Foe: A Story of Wrestling and Life

FEATURE ARTICLE
Printed in Fish n' Quips 2009-2010, Issue no. 5

The Greatest Foe: A Story of Wrestling and Life
by Simoun Redoblado

"I am in love with this woman."

Shawn Hickenbottom was sure of it. He had only known her for weeks, but he could tell it was love.

Weeks ago, Rebecca Curci was only a moving image on the television - so near, yet so far. With the help of friends and some luck, Shawn, 33, came to meet Rebecca, 23, in person. And after many days in her company, he was won over.

When they reached the terminal of the Los Angeles airport, Rebecca bade goodbye to him and got out of the car. As she was walking inside the airport, Shawn suddenly had the urge to tell her how he felt.

"I just had to tell her."

Shawn got out of his car and rushed inside the terminal. With a sense of urgency, he ran. When he found her, she was getting ready to take an escalator.

"Rebecca!"

She turned around, her radiant face and flowing hair in display. "Yes?"

"I hope it's okay, but I think I'm in love with you!"

Rebecca dropped her bags, ran up to Shawn and said, "Really? I love you so much too. I thought it was just me!"

Soon after, they became Mr. and Mrs. Shawn Hickenbottom at the Graceland Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. That was March 3, 1999.

"It was perfect."


Perfection, however, wouldn't last.

One evening after their marriage, in their San Antonio, Texas home, Shawn passed out on the floor.

The cause: drug abuse. Shawn was taking thirty to thirty-five pills a day.

The kind of pills? Pain killers and muscle relaxers. These were common among professional wrestlers.

For over 13 years, the 6-foot-1, 225-pounder had tied his light-brown hair in a ponyital, laced up his boots, and performed in the wrestling ring. The name he went by was widely admired and respected.

"Shawn Michaels was the very best performer the World Wrestling [Entertainment] had to offer and the first guy that made me aware that even greatness can be challenged," said Ric Flair (real name: Richard Fliehr), a WWE Hall of Famer.

Another Hall of Famer, announcer Jim Ross, once proclaimed, "Nobody has ever, ever outperformed Shawn Michaels in a big-match situation."

In Michaels' career, there were many. He leaped from the second rung of a 10-foot ladder and body-splashed Razor Ramon. He wrestled technical expert Bret Hart for more than an hour and won the presitigious WWE Championship. And, with his face drenched in blood, he pinned the gigantic Undertaker to claim victory in an enclosed 16-foot high cage.

But, in January 1998, Michaels' body absorbed the biggest loss yet.

While wrestling Undertaker in a Casket Match (in which the objective is to put your opponent in the casket and close it), Michaels landed back-first on the closed casket, rupturing two disks in his back. A doctor told him, "You are through. You will never wrestle again."

Two months later, Michaels lay int he middle of the ring at the Wrestlemania XIV event in Boston. He had lost his third WWE title to Steve Austin and received a punch from celebrity enforcer Mike Tyson. Austin approached him and draped a black Austin t-shirt over his body.

Wincing in pain, Michaels lay there.

Rebecca, who was several weeks pregnant, raised Shawn Hickenbottom's feet to relieve the pressure in his back. Afterwards, she walked into a large closet and prayed.


"After everything I've done for you-!"

Shawn stormed out of the locker room in Detroit, leaving Paul Levesque in shock.

March 27, 2001. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon had just purchased World Championship Wrestling (WCW) - his company's fiercest rival. After years of competition in TV ratings and crowd attendance, it was time for a celebration for WWE. It was also a time of great changes.

One man who could play a part in these changes: Shawn Michaels.

"At that point, we were gonna do something with Shawn," recalled Paul. Perhaps a TV appearance was planned for the ex-full time wrestler to involve him in the 'takeover'. Perhaps, more than one TV appearance.

Whatever the comeback plan was, it never came to happen.

That night, which was a taping night of WWE's Smackdwon show, WWE official Jerry Brisco came up to Shawn and asked, "Did you take something last night?"

The previous night had been the live telecast of WWE's Monday Night Raw, to which Shawn had also been invited. While watching in the Chairman's office, he took some pills.

"We are sending you home," Brisco said. "We wanted to give you a chance, but we can't have that. Even [Paul] said you were out of it."

Minutes later, in the locker room, Shawn confronted the man who often drove the car for him while he slept after a tiring show, hung out with him despite his bad reputation, woke him up many mornings when he was in terrible shape, and comforted him after his match at Wrestlemania XIV.


"Daddy's tired," whispered Cameron Hickenbottom a year later.

He crawled around his father, who was lying on the couch. They had eaten their dinner and some cookies.

The child's bedtime came, and his mother offered to read the bedtime story. But Shawn wanted to do it himself.

He stumbled into Cameron's bedroom. Soon, the book's images and text became fuzzy.

Hours later, Shawn woke up on the couch. He went upstairs, crawled into bed with Rebecca, and asked, "Where are all the cookies?"

"Baby, you ate them. You and Cameron ate them." But Shawn could not remember it.

He broke down crying.

As he lay there in bed, Shawn's spirit cried out, "I don't want to be like this anymore. Please, God, I've tried and I love my wife and my son so much."

Before dinner and cookies, he had taken some pills.


The following day, Shawn hung up the phone after a conversation. Then, he began to dial a number.

The conversation he had was with Kevin Nash, who had wrestled in WWE as 'Diesel', Shawn Michaels' 300-pound bodyguard. Outside the ring, though, Kevin, Shawn, and Paul Levesque were like brothers. During the conversation, Kevin gave Shawn some tough, brotherly advice.

"Are you still doing that stuff?" Keven had asked.

"Just every once in a while," Shawn had replied, the events of last night still fresh in his mind.

"You can't be off doing that stuff any more, man."

Kevin had then admonished Shawn for not talking to Paul for almost a year. "That's your fault, too. You were wrong."

Minutes later, Paul picked up his phone. It was his teammate in wrestling and life, apologizing for unfair words and thanking him for all his kindness.

When that conversation ended, Paul and Shawn were brothers again.

That night, Shawn slept well. As for Paul, it was turning out to be a great year. A few months ago, he had returned to the ring after a long absence.


When Shawn woke up on April 23, 2002, he felt something different.

He turned to Rebecca and told her, it's over. No more drugs, no more drinking. Rebecca had heard it all before - including vows of quittin before Cameron was born - but still she tried to be encouraging to him.

"Something is different today," said Shawn. "I'm not asking you to believe me. I'm just telling you. It's over."

"Well, good, honey. I hope that it is. I believe the Lord has done all this."

"I think you are right."

"Just pray and ask and He will take you where you need to go."

Later that day, Shawn found himself in the Cornerstone Church parking lot. Cameron was in the car with him. All the child knew was that they were going to run some errands.

"What are we doing, Daddy?" Cameron asked, puzzled.

"I don't know." The Hickenbottoms had been attending services in that church.

The two sat there in the parking lot for a while. When they got home, Shawn told Rebecca, "I think I am going to go in there and ask for a Bible study. Maybe that's what I need. Yours seems to have had a really positive effect on you. Something is still missing in me."

Rebecca had been attending a Bible study for quite some time. For Shawn, the former dancer for WCW Monday Nitro had been captivating since the first time he had watched her. But when she started attending Bible study, she became even more loving and beautiful.

As Shawn entered the house of parioshioner Keith Parker at 7 P.M. on April 25, 2002, the man who had been nicknamed "Sexy Boy" in the ring wasn't looking for good looks. In fact, he wasn't sure what he was looking for.

In order to be part of the Bible study, Keith told Shawn, the former professional wrestler had to be born again.

"Have you ever said the Sinner's Prayer?" asked Keith.

"No. I've said a lot of prayers, but I don't remember saying one that is called that."

"It's not really any particular prayer. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior?"

"No."

"Would you like to?"

"You know something... yeah, I would."

Only four days ago, Shawn Hickenbottom couldn't read his son a bedtime story. A year ago, he had destroyed his relationship with a man who cared for him in his times of weakness. Three years before that, in a packed arena in Boston, he had lost his professional wrestling career.

Two out of those three times, he had cried.

Now, as Keith Parker led in the Sinner's Prayer, Shawn was crying again. This time, they weren't tears of anguish and loss. They were tears of joy and redemption.

By accepting Jesus Christ, he had been born again.

"In one moment, everything made sense," Shawn later recounted. "I knew who I was. I got it. All of a sudden, 'ding!' The light went on, and nothing really mattered now, except [my family's relationship with Jesus Christ]. And as long as we got [Christ], man, we are good."


When Shawn came hom, he told Rebecca what had happened. Rebecca was in bliss as she embraced her husband.

Shawn asked her if she knew the Sinner's Prayer. Rebecca knew it... and something more. During Shawn's troubled times, she had known all along that what he had just gone through - the Prayer, being born again, and Bible study - was exactly what he needed.

He asked her why she didn't say anything. Rebecca pointed to a Bible passage that she had learned in her own Bible study. According to 1 Peter 3:1, "The wife should win her husband over to the Lord by her actions and not her words." And whenever she prayed in the closet after one of his drug problem episodes, she heard the Lord telling her to be the woman she's supposed to be.

Now, Shawn Hickenbottom is the man he's supposed to be - a caring husband and father.

"I will love that woman for all the days of my life," declared Shawn. And certainly, the "Sexy Boy" will love another girl - his 5-years-old daughter Cheyenne.

But Shawn had better watch it when eating cookies with Cameron. He needs to maintain his body for his present job.


"This is the opportunity for D-Generation X to make history!"

December 13, 2009. Commentator Matt Striker's words captured the scene in San Antonio's AT&T Center.

Lying outside the ring were Chris Jericho, a blonde-haired Canadian veteran, and Big Show, a 7-foot behemoth. Both had been knocked out by their opponents, who were standing in the ring.

Triple H looked up, his mane of brown hair moving gently. Hanging several feet above him were two large leather belts adorned with gold, their straps fastened around a noose. The team that retrieves those belts will win the match, and gain recognition as the best tag team in WWE.

The problem was, the climbing device had been destroyed.

In his hands, Triple H held a ladder. Or, to be precise, half a ladder. One side had ben torn off by Big Show, making the collage of metal in Triple H's hands useless.

Or was it?

Thinking quickly, he hosited up the half-ladder, holding it firmly. He then looked at his teammate and pointed to the belts.

Shawn Michaels got the message.

Triple H put his left leg forward and bent it, giving the half-ladder more support. Michaels then grasped the ladder and began to climb. As the crowd cheered fervently, commentator Michael Cole cried, "Teamwork! Teamwork has always embodied DX!"

Michaels climbed steadily. When he reached the midway-point of the half-ladder, his head brushed one of the belts.

"Michaels is there!" cried Cole. The crowd was deafening the 44 year-old reached out his hands.

One belt was unhooked.

And then the other.

The bell ran as 15,000 fans exploded in jubilation. Amidst the thunderous roar, Striker proclaimed, "For the first time ever, we can say that D-Generation X are the Tag Team Champions!"

Paul Levesque still held the half-ladder.

And Shawn Hickenbottom, who had climbed the ladder, now raised their championship belts in triumph.


The quotations in the article were taken from these sources:

Flair, Ric and Keith Elliot Greenberg. "Ric Flair: To Be The Man." New York: Pocket Books, 2004.
Michaels, Shawn and Aaron Feigenbaum. "Heartbreak and Triumph: The Shawn Michaels Story." New York: Pocket Books, 2005.
World Wrestling Entertainment. "The History of the WWE Championship." 2006. DVD.
World Wrestling Entertainment. "The Shawn Michaels Story: Heartbreak and Triumph." 2007. DVD.
World Wrestling Entertainment. "WWE TLC." 2009. Pay-per-view event.